Kathmandu, February 25

Schools in the different parts of the country have demanded textbooks in mother tongues.

The government has allowed schools to teach certain subjects at primary level in mother tongue of respective areas.

“Due to unavailability of textbooks in the local language, we have been facing difficulty teaching them,” said Paras Thakur, principal of Jaya Hanuman Primary School, Govindapur. Most of the students of the school speak Bhojpuri and they don’t understand Nepali due to which teaching0learning activities have been greatly affected, according to Thakur.

“There are 172 students in the school from early childhood development level to Grade V. They have been using textbooks prescribed by Curriculum Development Centre and there are no textbooks written in Bhojpuri language,” he added.

“Though schools have been using Bhojpuri as a medium of instruction, children of Pokhariya Municipality are unable to understand what is being taught for want of textbooks written in their own language,” said Ram Prasad Yadav, principal at Shree Nepal Rastriya Primary School Gardual.

“We have been asking Department of Education to provide textbooks in local languages for the last few years, but it has not heeded our request,” he said.

According to Deputy Director of CDC Bishnu Adhikari, CDC has developed textbooks for 24 language subjects prescribed for the secondary level students as optional subjects.

“Now, we have been preparing to include one more language subject — Majhi,” he said, adding that it was not mandatory

for schools to have textbooks in mother tongue, they could simply use their mother tongues as a medium of instruction to enhance the understanding of students.

Deputy Director of Multi language Education Section at Department of Education Narayan Prasad Subedi said the school themselves could develop textbooks for primary level and did not have to take permission from Department of Education.